Monday, April 13, 2015

Obvious: New study finds more people will survive a Tsunami if the walk faster to high ground...

I hope taxpayers didn't help fund this, but I am likely wrong.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - About 5,500 more people could survive a
major tsunami hitting the Pacific Northwest if they just walk a little
faster to higher ground after roads are knocked out, a new study shows.
The report published Monday in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences looked at 73 communities along 700
miles of coastline in Oregon, Washington and Northern California. The
area is considered most at risk from the next major earthquake and
tsunami in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where two plates of the Earth's
crust come together miles off the coast.
Emergency preparedness experts generally agree that
after the quake and tsunami, most roads will be too damaged for
driving, so people will have to walk to safety.
Geographers estimated 21,562 residents would not
make it to safety if they walk slowly - at about 2.5 mph. But if they
walk faster, at about 3.5 mph, the death toll drops to 15,970. About 70
percent of them would be in Washington, nearly 30 percent in Oregon and
only 4 percent in California.
The study said people working or staying at motels
in the tsunami area also will be at risk, but it didn't say how many. It
also noted where communities have dependent-care facilities, where
residents might have trouble walking.
Lead author Nathan Wood, a geographer for the U.S.
Geological Survey in Portland, Oregon, said the findings show tsunami
risks are a public health issue as well as an emergency preparedness
issue. Promoting healthy lifestyles that help people walk faster would
save lives. Read it all.

In their next study, they are going to see if people who are starving to death could live longer if they ate more. /snark